People of the Revolution and the USSR

Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP) Communism 1877–1941 ○ Natural causes

Czech journalist who chaired the Revolutionary Governing Council of the Slovak Soviet Republic in 1919

Born in Nymburk, he was originally an engine fitter; he joined the Social Democratic Party in 1895 and from 1906 was a workers’ journalist and an official of workers’ associations. Living in Budapest from 1918 as a correspondent of the Kladno paper Svoboda, he led the Czech and Slovak section of the Hungarian Communist Party’s central committee in 1919. After the Hungarian Red Army entered Slovakia he proclaimed the Slovak Soviet Republic in Prešov and became chairman of its Revolutionary Governing Council, but the state ceased to exist on 7 July when Czechoslovak troops pushed the Hungarians out. Imprisoned in Hungary after the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, he was handed over to the Czechoslovak authorities in 1920. Granted Soviet citizenship, he moved to Soviet Russia in 1922 and worked for International Workers’ Aid. He died of natural causes in 1941.

Hungary Communism 1878–1927 ○ Died

Professional officer who as chief of staff of the Hungarian Red Army directed the northern campaign of 1919

Born in Újpest into a German-origin Evangelical family of intellectuals, he graduated from the Ludovika Academy in 1896, studied at the War Academy in Vienna and in 1913 became its first professor from the Hungarian army. In January 1919 he joined the Social Democratic Party and as state secretary was put in charge of army organisation. Under the Soviet Republic he became chief of staff of the Red Army on 21 April, won an important victory near Miskolc and led the northern campaign, but resigned on 3 July in protest at the acceptance of the Clemenceau note and the order to withdraw. Arrested after the fall, he was sentenced to three years for treason in 1920, and from 1925 he was a member of the illegal Communist Party. He died in 1927 and was posthumously promoted to colonel general in 1945.

Hungary Communism 1890–1919 ✕ Suicide (disputed)

Communist deputy war commissar of the Hungarian Soviet Republic and a leading figure of its Red Terror

Born to a Jewish family in Nyíregyháza, he became a journalist and was taken prisoner by Russia during the First World War. After the October Revolution he organised Communist Hungarian prisoners of war in Moscow with Béla Kun, and in December 1918 he took part in founding the Spartacist League in Germany. In the Soviet Republic he was deputy people’s commissar of war and commissar of public education, and his guards became known as the Lenin Boys. A central figure of the Red Terror, which executed suspected counter-revolutionaries without trial, he flew to Moscow in late May to see Lenin. He died on 2 August 1919 after being caught crossing into Austria; the authorities reported that he had shot himself.

Hungary Communism 1894–1919 ✕ Executed

Communist who ran the political police of the Hungarian Soviet Republic as head of its political investigation department

Born into a wealthy, enlightened Jewish family, he was active in the Galileo Circle and, while working as a bank official, led the illegal anti-militarist group of revolutionary socialists in 1918. He helped found the Party of Communists in Hungary and joined its Central Committee, and on 21 March 1919 he typed the text of the merger of the two parties in prison. In the Soviet Republic he first handled the socialisation of shops and then, as head of the political investigation department of the interior commissariat, hunted suspected counter-revolutionaries. After the fall he stayed behind with György Lukács to rebuild the underground party, was arrested and tortured, and was hanged in December 1919.

Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP) Communism 1897–1932 ✕ Executed

Hungarian Communist leader hanged in 1932 under the summary jurisdiction proclaimed after the Biatorbágy bombing

Born in Erdőfüle, he bore the surname Hollender until 1916. A bank clerk, he organised an anti-militarist movement with Ottó Korvin during the First World War and was arrested in 1918. In the 1919 Soviet Republic he was Korvin’s deputy in the political department of the people’s commissariat of the interior. After its fall he fled via Vienna to Moscow and worked for International Red Aid, and was sent home on Béla Kun’s proposal to run the illegal party press. Arrested in July 1932, he was sentenced to death although he had no part in the Biatorbágy bombing, and was hanged with Sándor Fürst on 29 July.

Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP) Communism 1903–1932 ✕ Executed

Member of the Hungarian Communist leadership hanged with Imre Sallai after a summary trial that used the Biatorbágy bombing as a pretext

Born in Rum to Jewish parents, he worked as a clerk at a rubber factory in Budapest, belonged to the clerical workers’ union and joined the Communist Party in 1926. Repeatedly arrested from 1928 and released for lack of evidence, he lost his job; in 1930 he joined the party leadership and was soon arrested again. In 1932, under the summary jurisdiction proclaimed after the Biatorbágy bombing, he was sentenced to death together with Imre Sallai. Despite a campaign by the Hungarian Red Aid and protests by Attila József and others, he was hanged on 29 July.

Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP) Communism 1905–1942 ✕ Executed

Underground Communist leader who organised anti-war demonstrations through the Independence Committee and was executed in 1942

Born in Kassa (Košice), he joined the labour movement as a university student in Prague. After the First Vienna Award of November 1938 he went underground and worked in Hungary, linking up with the Communist Party’s representative. From December 1940 he organised the party’s anti-war struggle and led the Independence Committee, which staged the demonstrations of 6 October and 1 November 1941. He prepared the Christmas 1941 issue of Népszava and wrote the editorial of the first issue of the underground Szabad Nép on 1 February 1942. Arrested on 6 July 1942, he was sentenced to death by the special court of the Chief of the General Staff and executed on 9 October.

Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP) Communism 1906–1942 ✕ Died in custody

Communist who was the first editor of the underground Szabad Nép and died in custody after his arrest in 1942

Born in Budapest, he studied civil engineering in Karlsruhe and Dresden, where he led the socialist students’ association and wrote warnings against the Nazis. Back in Hungary in 1931, he was drawn by his brother Richárd into the underground Communist movement and in 1935 joined the leadership of the Communist Youth League. From 1938 he built Communist cells inside the Social Democratic Party and the trade unions, and after June 1941 he went underground as a leader of the “independence movement”. Editor-in-chief of Szabad Nép from February 1942, he was arrested on 1 June and died two weeks later in unclear circumstances.